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For these borrowers and lenders, debt is a relationship based on love

Transforming the financial system could allow debt to become a source of freedom instead of servitude.

Published:
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Borrowers and investors of Salish Sea Cooperative Finance. Credit: Paul Dunn/YES! Magazine. All rights reserved.

The 82-year-old artist Mary Frank traces her earliest debts to the prehistoric images in books that her mother kept around the house. Their shadows have reappeared throughout her sculptures, paintings, and photographs. But she knows none of their creators’ names; there is no address where she can send a royalty check. The best repayment she can offer is the work of her own hands.